A Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network supporting Multicast Virtual Private Networking (VPN) or M-VPN may provide redundancy via a multicast source being dual-homed to the Root PE(s). The dual-homed Root PE(s) may individually originate Provider-Tunnels (P-Tunnels) towards the Leaf PE, and the Leaf PE may source the traffic from either of the upstream dual-homed Root PE nodes.
Various mechanisms exist to enable the Leaf PEs to monitor the status of the P-Tunnels when selecting the upstream PE for a VPN multicast flow. In this manner, Leaf PEs may select a backup P-Tunnel (i.e., a backup Root PE) in response to a failure of a primary or previously selected P-Tunnel. In this manner, a (relatively) fast failure mechanism is implemented for upstream failures. A Multicast VPN fast upstream failover mechanism is described in more detail in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) document draft-morin-l3vpn-mvpn-fast-failover.